Ken
You can look at the cross and say, oh, man, I'm dying. Or you can take a look at the cross and say, I'm coming alive because of the cross. And I think that's another way of looking at the cross. Because I think, all too often in our past, we viewed the cross as something very negative. Because something in our flesh is dying, Hey, that's not a bad thing, We want the flesh to die. We want to come alive to God, I think maybe it's the way we view it.
Dale
I think you're right, Ken. We have to realize that the cross is a one-time experience. And once you have finished that experience, you put it behind you, just like Christ did. And then what did He do? He says, it's finished, and He commanded His Spirit, to return to the Father. Once you have accepted you're cross experience, and you say I have it - that's what changes things. Because now you're following in the footsteps of Jesus Christ to the right hand of the Father. If you choose to hang there, you're going to be caught in all the problems of the cross. If you're willing to finish it, and it's up to you to finish it; it'll launch you into a tremendous relationship with the Father and relationship to each other. You will, you will have a love of the Father and the Father will convey a love to you. Because you're a son, who finished the course.
Ron
It has to be an experience, a real living experience that no one can talk you out of. It's not a doctrine. It's not something you learn. I think it's in every one of our spirits. There is a demand that everything is real. Nothing's good enough anymore, except for knowing that I know. There's no room for doubt. You get into the dynamics of what we're headed into; there's no room for doubt. There's no room for unbelief. You either are or you're not. This level of the cross this level of God's love -if it's still a luxury, you won't have it. When it becomes a necessity of life and death, you'll have it.
Lois
Would you say that the cross is discipline? For those whom the Lord loves He disciplines, and scourges every son whom He receives. It is for discipline that you endure. God deals with you as sons, for what son is there whom the Father does not discipline? But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you're illegitimate children and not sons.
Ron
That discipline - we enter into the discipline, it is not a fun thing. But I do believe that as you mature in it, you begin to embrace it. Because you realize, like you're saying, Ken, I need this! I have to have this to become what the Father wants me to become. But we have to walk through it.
Dale
The work of the Cross in our life does not have to be an interval process. So that we always wonder, will it ever be finished? Yes, Christ finished it on the cross. He finished it for us - and we can follow that. We'd have a tendency to try to come up with all kinds of ways that we can qualify. If I only love Him enough. If I only serve Him enough, if I only do this, if I show up for church, if I do this, I do that. The thing that really impresses me about the cross and my experience with the cross is it's by one offering that He accomplished it. It's been accomplished. And all I have to do is claim it. It's so easy because He's already done it for us. It's our human nature that argues back and forth with ourselves and each other, about how you can get on the cross fulfill the cross, walk in the fullness of the cross. We can talk about it all day long - it's just one simple thing - Lord, I claim it. I believe in You. I've got it forever. How many times are we going to crucify Christ? Hoist Him back up on the cross, and having die for this sin and that sin and this sin and that sin. No He died once and for all, you can appropriate that. Like you say Ron, we got to dump an old way of thinking. Do you want something that you can never lose? We can have an altar call right now. And as you walk down that aisle, and you accept salvation, walk down that aisle and say, Lord, I accept your cross - and let's get on with it. I think the battle in Christianity is over just that simple thing of believing and claiming it. You qualify - and you don't have to earn it, it's something you will appropriate.
Ken
I think after the cross, there comes a discipline, in our own spirit, to do the will of God. I think we get away from the corrected part and we get into the place where - God What can I do in my approach to You to be more, to be more connected, to have a greater fellowship, to do the will of God in my life? When you love somebody you want to do what pleases them. I think it's something in our heart that we're driven for. In this relationship with the Father we want to do, or to be what He's called us to be, just to please Him, just to be a part of what He's doing.
Mike
We're still in dire need of a greater revelation of it is finished. Are we walking in what's been finished? Are we becoming fully what's been finished? Do we realize how far down the road we are? Or are not? As long as we keep walking together, arm and arm, nobody's gonna get left out. But we all share and partake at the same time. His love is coming through in a greater measure for each and every one of us. The presence of the Lord is getting stronger and stronger in us and manifesting through us as we become those obedient sons that humble ourselves and maintain a right spirit before Him.
